Off the Clearance Rack
by xnyre
Summary: Purchasing a discounted clearance item came with a lot more than Sakura bargained for on a Friday night. She should've known to always read the fine print.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

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"... and add a drop of blood in the middle of the diagram."

Sakura made a face. Blood, really?

In one hand, she held a crisp paper pamphlet and in the other, a small piece of red chalk. Sprawled out before her were plastic wrappings that had once contained little knick-knacks from the _Summon Your Personal Demon! _kit, the actual box it came in, a sewing kit, and one napkin. The box that had held everything was placed beside her, the bright orange sticker stating _70 percent off!_ slapped over the front.

Sakura reread the instructions and looked down at the diagram she had just drawn with the red chalk. It wasn't her neatest work, with the package's lack of paper to draw on and Sakura refusing to draw on her wood floors, she had used a crumpled napkin found in her bag.

Placing the pamphlet and chalk down on either side of her, she picked up the needle from the sewing kit. Pricking her finger with a needle to draw blood for something that was absolutely fake seemed a little over the top to her, but it was a Friday night, and Sakura didn't have anything else going on.

With a deep breath and a quick prick, a small dot of blood formed at the tip of her index.

"Am I supposed to let it just fall naturally or…." Sakura mused aloud, placing the needle back and then holding her hand over the diagram, waiting for enough blood to form. Only problem was it was a small prick, therefore it was a very, very small amount of blood.

Sakura looked over to the pamphlet again searching to see if it said anything about how to apply the blood.

It didn't.

She shrugged and placed her finger in the middle of the napkin, smearing the blood through the chalk lines. Sakura waited on baited breath.

Nothing happened.

"Well," she sighed, almost disappointed but not surprised. "It wasn't like I was expecting something anyways."

Gathering up the materials strewn about, Sakura began to clean up. She placed everything in the box and made her way to her kitchen to throw it away. Good thing it was on sale or she would've felt even more foolish for buying it.

Making her way back into the living room, Sakura saw the napkin still lying on the floor. Thinking for a second, she swore she grabbed it with the rest of the items thrown in the box, but didn't linger on the thought as she reached down to grab it.

Only, it burst into flames before her fingers could touch it.

Sakura lept back in surprise with a yelp. "What the hell!"

The napkin was quickly engulfed in the flame and the mark it had drawn on it was now scorched onto her wood floors.

"Oh no, _no_ fucking way." Sakura whispered, suddenly breathless. Her heart beating erratically in her chest as her mind tried to comprehend what just happened. "I needa call Ino."

Sakura ran straight into her room and flipped her pillows and blankets off her bed in search of her phone. Anxiety steadily built itself as her frantic searching produced nothing. Until she heard her phone ring from the other room.

Her living room.

Her gut screamed at her not to go that way. But she was clearly being irrational. Maybe it was just a trick from the chalk, maybe it was some sort of chemical reaction, maybe it was an actual summoning circle and Sakura summoned Cthulhu from the abyss to wreak havoc on the mortal realm and all life as she knew it was cease to exis—

Sakura stopped her thoughts before she sent herself spiraling into a panic attack about her ending the world off of a discounted fake summoning circle.

That thought didn't comfort her though as she cautiously made her way back into her living room. She peaked in first to see if anything changed. Medical books laying around, shoes by the door untouched, scorched summoning circle imprinted on her wood floor, her ringing phone vibrating on her coffee table.

Awkwardly running over to her phone with a hop over the mark on her floor, Sakura answered with a quick swipe and a breathless hello.

"_Forehead! What're you doing? I'm just getting off a late shift and I'm _starving! _Please tell me you haven't eaten yet."_

Exhaling her relief Sakura plopped backwards into her couch. "Oh Ino, I was just thinking about you, you would not _believe_ what just happened." Sakura leaned against the arm of her couch, rubbing her eyes with her free hand.

"_You should always be thinking of me, I'm irresistible. Also could it wait 'til we meet up? We can talk about what shenanigans you're getting yourself into over some hot pot!" _

Sakura smiled, removing her hand from her face. "Hmm, some hot pot does actually sound good right now, I'll meet you at our usual sp—"

Emerald eyes opened to see a person standing in front of her. Another person. In her apartment. When there should only be her. In her apartment.

"_Our usual spot? Yeah, that sounds good—oh, I gotta go real quick Saks, some of my coworkers are coming up, I'll meet you at the restaurant in thirty, bye-bye, love ya!" _

Click.

Startlingly intense azure eyes stared down at her frozen form. Sakura's mouth hung open, her phone slipping out her hand, landing on the couch with a dull bounce and thud.

The _man _opened his mouth and Sakura's ears were met with what could only be described as a voice rich, deep and smooth like honey never meant for human consumption.

"Sakura, hmm?" Lips stretched into an easy smirk. "Deidara, at your service."

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a/n: When I first thought of this story, I honestly had no clue who I wanted as the demon. When going through characters, I started to lean heavily towards Shisui but seeing as its not that common of a crack!pairing I reluctantly decided against it. I briefly considered Hidan and Naruto but ultimately enjoyed the idea of bouncing Deidara and Sakura's personalities off of each other. It's definitely not going to be a heavy story, but not absolute crack either. There's a plot in this one and I hope you all come to enjoy it. Thanks for reading, I'll see you next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N:This chapter took forever to edit. :v_

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Chapter Two

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This had to be some hallucination. Maybe the chalk had a drug that activated upon contact. Maybe she was dreaming. The probability of actually _summoning _something from her little discounted kit was purely _fictional. _Still, Sakura's eyes were locked onto the person before her.

Golden hair fell past tanned shoulders, ending right under his collarbones. Half tied up in a messy bun with thick bangs falling over his left eye. His burning stare was accentuated by what looked to Sakura as smeared eyeliner surrounding his icy blue eye. A deeper back coated his hands and faded its way up his forearms in elegant swirls, ending before his elbow. His body seemed etched from the very same marble that Greek gods were depicted in. Strange markings formed a symbol over his left pectoral.

Emerald eyes traveled lower, taking in black snug pants that hugged his hips perfectly, and stopping at his bare feet that stood over the symbol burned into her floor.

"Wh… w-what?" Sakura slowly stuttered out in disbelief. While her mind was doing back flips trying to figure out what was happening in front of her, her instincts were telling her to _run_ _far away. _

The hairs on her neck rose when the man took a step. Goosebumps pickled their way across her arms as he took another.

"W-wait—wait!" Panic started building in her chest. She rose back further into the couch, almost crouching on it, ready to jump from the cushions and make for any exit closest to her.

The blonde _man_ tilted his head slightly to the side, his bangs moving enough to show his other eye through the thick hair. He said nothing. And while Sakura was thankful he remained silent, some part of her she didn't recognize wanted him to speak again—to hear that smooth voice.

"How do you know my name, how did you get here?" Sakura managed to get out quickly, placing a hand out in front of her to stop his advance.

Azure eyes flickered down to her hand, his smirk remaining on his face. "You asked for me."

"I don't even know who you are!"

"You, Haruno Sakura..."

Step.

"-invited me, Deidara…"

Step.

"-to fulfill the contract."

Sakura stared wide eyed at her shaking hand. He stopped right before her fingertips would brush over his tanned skin. The heat radiating off of him only increased her panic.

This person was _real._

"Deidara? C—_contract?" _she choked out. "What contract?"

The smirk fell from his face. A spark of annoyance shone in his eyes. "This." He pointed to the symbols over the left side of his chest. "The blood contract you signed between us."

The image of smearing her pricked finger carelessly across the napkin that held that symbol drawn in chalk flashed in her mind. "That was _real?" _

"Why wouldn't it be, hm?"

This was absolute pure madness. Sakura's breath began coming in short pants, the adrenaline making her heart beat erratically in her chest. On the cusp of a panic attack, Sakura sprang from the couch and made for her front door. She slipped on the welcome mat, falling on her knees but managed to grab the doorknob and yanked it open. She moved with the intent to book it down the street and as far away as her legs could carry her from this _demonic _home invader only to be met with the solid body of said man. She stumbled backwards and felt prickling fear freeze her veins when his hands moved to grab her upper arms, forcing her to stand up right.

"You're making this difficult which is starting to piss me off, hmm." With his hands being _very_ real and gripping her arms tightly, a scream bubbled its way up her throat, only no sound came out.

"I can't have you screaming outside and attracting unwanted attention." Deidara whispered harshly. He moved her back into the house, kicking the door shut behind him. "And apparently you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, hm."

Helpless in the '_man's'_ hold, Sakura let Deidara steer her back into her living room and set her down onto her couch. There was a tingle in her throat that made her want to cough but sheer terror kept her silent. Deidara sat himself down on the coffee table directly in front of her. He waved his hand in a dismissive manner, before leaning forward, only slightly invading her space. The tingling sensation disappeared and Sakura cleared her throat, relieved she could hear it.

"You can speak again but don't try screaming. I'll silence you for a week if you pull that stunt." He glared and waited for her to nod before continuing. "Listen carefully. Whether you're unaware of it or not, you've entered into a blood contract with me. You drew my summoning circle and gave me your blood so we're bound together now. Most humans that partake in this ritual know exactly what they're getting into in terms of bargaining so, _Sakura_, how did you summon me _unknowingly_?"

With her mind swirling with a million questions, the man asking _her_ how she summoned him was not another one she needed on her plate.

"Actually no, don't bother answering that. I give humans too much credit. Your race does stupid shit all the time unaware." Deidara closed his eyes and sighed through his nose. The comment ignited a spark of anger in Sakura which overtook her initial fear. Not only did he not give her a chance to speak, he basically just called her an idiot. So she decided to speak up before he continued with another insult.

"First of all, fuck you."

The silence that followed was stifling. Deidara blinked at her, obviously caught off guard. Sakura took advantage of his stunned state to continue.

"Secondly, your explanation is quite shit. Like, _demon_? _Contract_? I bought you off the clearance rack!"

Regaining some of his composure, Deidara glowered, clearly not happy with her side of this conversation. Sakura felt a bit of uneasiness creep back into her. Despite the absurdity of the situation and the heavy,_ heavy_ denial it was even happening in the first place, Sakura's brain managed to accept that the person before her had some type of demonic power. Although her frustration made her gutsy, there was still the immense fear of this unknown situation and this unknown man swirling just beneath the surface.

"Clearance rack?" Deidara echoed back eventually, eyebrows knitted together.

"Yeah clearance rack, you know, like something cheaper than the original price-"

"Yes I am aware of human customs when it comes to buying goods thank you." He snapped, causing her to flinch. He raised a hand to his mouth, glaring into nothing, obviously mulling over her words.

"This must be a prank." She heard him mumble quietly into his hand.

"A prank?"

"A demon prank." Deidara elaborated. "My friends-"

"_Friends?" _Sakura exclaimed loudly, causing Deidara once again to return his irritated gaze to her.

"Yes, friends. They must've put my summoning circle onto some common human resource while I was sleeping."

"Sleeping?"

"Demons need rest too. Any more _questions_?" Sakura shook her head. "Good. Now where is the summoning circle?"

Slowly the girl's attention moved to a spot behind him. Deidara turned to where her gaze wandered to and saw his mark. He moved closer and squatted down to inspect it. Not wanting to move from her spot on the couch, Sakura watched Deidara trace the marks on her otherwise pristine floor boards. She wasn't sure what he was looking for in those lines and she didn't want to interrupt him.

"What is happening…?" Sakura whispered mostly for herself but Deidara turned back to look at her. He held her gaze for a few seconds before standing up and moving to take the empty spot next to her on the couch. She squeaked in surprise and scooted back to the very edge of the sofa.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Deidara said, irritation still coloring his voice. "We're under contract now."

"What does that even mean?" Sakura asked, though she knew the answer already. But asking questions was the only thing keeping her sane in this bizarre situation.

"Like I said earlier, it means we are tied together." He reached forward and grabbed Sakura's hand before she could react. She jerked in surprise and tried to pull away but he held tight, forcing her fist open and looking at the tiny red dot on her index finger. "We're tied together by your blood."

Deidara's blue eyes looked up to her own, holding them with their intensity. The reality of the situation started to settle into her bones. This was happening. This person, Deidara, was real and he was touching her. Looking into her eyes with such intensity it was like he could see straight into her soul. Sakura swallowed, suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to cry. "I don't know what that means." Her voice cracked.

"Don't cry." Deidara ordered, softening his voice slightly. He gently moved his thumb across her wrist in a small caress. Sakura sucked in a breath and nodded, but she blinked and a few tears spilled over anyways. He watched them roll quickly down her cheeks. "You may not be ready to accept it but deep down you'll feel it. Your soul is now bound to mine. By using your blood as a signature for the contract between us, you now have access to my powers. Whatever you want, I can grant, but for a price. Depending on how big the demand is, I take bits of your soul as payment."

"My soul?" The girl whispered on shaky breath. Deidara tried not to let his impatience show as she continuously parroted back questions.

"Think of it like your life force. The more soul I take from you, the less life you have to live. If you make a big demand, I could take a big chunk of it or I could take the whole thing. If you make a small one, I could take a little bit, like a minute or a day. The thing is, humans have no idea when their death will be so there's always the possibility that you die tomorrow so even making a tiny demand could have a big impact on your remaining time." Deidara released the girl's hand once he finished, having realized it was still in his grasp. Her gaze fell to her lap, clearly drawing into herself as she absorbed his words. He noticed no more tears fell despite her eyes remaining glossy.

Sakura let the words sink into her brain. This was ridiculous, even if this was a dream. Which she was quickly learning to accept _was not_. She clearly got a lot more than she expected tonight and now her soul was up for sale.

A loophole. There must be a loophole.

Recalling all the cheesy horror movies regarding demons and humans, Sakura tried coming up with anything that might help her situation. Most of the time, humans made a deal with the devil for their own selfish gains like money, eternal youth, or materialistic things but the wishes were always granted in a roundabout why that in the end, fucked over the human and the demon still collected the soul. She raked her brain harder because she could not afford that outcome. What could she even wish for? End world hunger? World peace? Those seemed like big demands but worth giving her life up for. But what if the movies were true? Then she'd die without her wishes coming true. But how could she get out of this? Contracts are binding, even in the human world. And they _ALWAYS _had fine print. She looked up to him as the gears in her brain finally halted. If wishing in the end really would just fuck her over then….

"Well?" Deidara raised an eyebrow expectantly at her. He took note of her composure, noticing her balled fist and the defiance in her eyes.

"I won't make any demand."

The last reaction she expected was Deidara throwing his head back and laughing which was precisely what he did. Accepting his supernatural existence was difficult enough and now seeing him actually laugh at her stirred up her temper once again. "I'm serious!"

"You can't do that." Deidara chuckled, pushing his hair back, most likely being unintentionally sexy but Sakura's eyes still followed the movement with rapt attention before shaking herself out of it and returning to the matter at hand.

"Says who? You? You didn't say that when you were explaining things. With no demands means you have nothing to take." Sakura sniffed. Deidara's relaxed posture turned more attentive, causing her to gulp nervously, but refusing to back down. If this guy thought he could intimidate her into submission, he had another thing coming. Sure he caught her off guard materializing his ridiculously attractive self into her home on an otherwise boring Friday night, but she wasn't going to let him continue to bully her like she was an idiot.

"The contract has to be fulfilled." Deidara ground out slowly, threateningly. His presence felt overbearing in her tiny living room, making her feel small and suffocated as the shadows on the walls seemed to grow and darken. His eyes shone brighter in an eerie way. Sakura gripped the couch cushion in an effort to ground herself.

"And if it's not?" She gasped out.

"A human never passes up an opportunity to get whatever they want. Love, money, revenge, humans always want something." Deidara hissed, leaning forward into Sakura's space. Against her voice of reason urging her to put some distance between them, she leaned in.

"I don't want any of it. I wish for no-" Deidara perked up at her breathy whisper. Sakura snapped her mouth shut. She would have to be careful not to slip up, even if she wished for nothing, he'd probably twist her words into something.

"For what, hmm? For nothing? Say it, Sakura." Deidara leaned further to murmur next to her ear. His warm breath fanning over her sent pleasant chills down her spine. Like a switch flipped he was suddenly intoxicating, her thoughts muddling into the single need to get closer to him. She closed her eyes at the sensation, wanting him to continue whispering to her, whether it was something damning or just anything to hear his voice. She leaned her head away from him on instinct, exposing her neck. Deidara's lips nearly brushed against her skin as he continued. "I can give you anything you want. I could make you the happiest person in this world."

A small sigh escaped her traitorous mouth. Alarms were going off in her head now but a pleasant haze blocked out reason. Maybe she did want something… if he could make her feel this nice with just his voice then maybe….

_**Bzz. Bzz.**_

Reality shifted back and the fog in her mind dissipated. She shoved Deidara back with a harsh push against his chest causing him to fall back off the couch and onto the floor. Normalcy settled back into her living room from whatever Deidara had done. Ignoring his curses, Sakura took a movement to compose herself. What was she just about to let herself _do?_

_**Bzz. Bzz**_

"My phone." Sakura announced mostly to bring herself back into reality. She looked down to the floor where she dropped her phone earlier and picked it up, unlocking the screen but not really absorbing the words presented.

"Hey, don't fucking ignore me!" Deidara now stood in front of her sitting form, causing her to look up at him. The words on the phone now sinking into her brain as an actual language.

"My friend is coming over."

Deidara raised an eyebrow. "Okay and? Is that going to make you apologize for throwing me back or what, hmm?"

"My friend is coming over…" Sakura repeated more quietly this time, returning her gaze to the phone screen. Suddenly she shot up, startling Deidara enough to make him jump back. "_My friend is coming over!"_

"Yeah, I heard you the first two times."

"Shut up, oh my god." Sakura said before rushing to her kitchen. Deidara looked after her, mouth slightly open in surprise from being told to 'shut up'. The girl clearly went through emotions very fast, it was almost giving him whiplash.

"You can't be here." Sakura informed him once she returned from the kitchen with a napkin in her hand. She placed it over the scorch mark before observing her work with a frustrated tilt of her head. "Oh for fuck's sake, this won't work." She muttered before snatching it back up from the floor.

"Where am I supposed to go? I'm bound to you. Complete a demand and I'll leave." Deidara said, feeling all at once vexxed from being interrupted in the middle of charming her and slightly amused at the clearly flustered state in which he left her in.

"I don't know. Don't you have a home or something? Like a little house in hell on fire?" She snapped back, bunching up the napkin in her hand and chucking it in his direction. It floated pathetically to his feet. He looked at the napkin then her.

"First you shove me away-"

"You were invading my personal space."

"-and then you tell me to shut up-"

"I didn't think you'd be that sensitive about it."

"-and now you assume I live in a house on fire? Do I look like a comic book demon to you, hmm?"

The frustration was evident in his voice and posture but Sakura didn't care, she was frustrated too. Everything felt like it was spiraling out of her control and she wasn't sure what to tackle first. Ino already texted her that she had changed her mind and wanted to stay in and eat and was driving on her way over. The scorch mark on her floor was hard to miss and was stressing her out more than the actual demon standing in the middle of her living room. Hiding Deidara, if it came to it, wouldn't be a big deal. Sakura figured she'd just shove him into her room and tell him to shut the hell up since he apparently gets offended by that and maybe he'd brood in solitude long enough to change Ino's mind from eating in to eating out. She glanced around her living room, seeing which would be the most inconspicuous item to place over the mark. A chair would be too odd to have in the middle of the room and she didn't have a rug. Maybe her shoes?

Deidara watched Sakura pace around the room for a minute before reaching for the throw blanket on the couch and tossed it on the floor.

"Hey!" Sakura cried, reaching down to grab the blanket but stopped when Deidara threw her couch pillows next.

"If you're so embarrassed by that mark then cover it with this. Say you were lounging or something on your floor watching a movie." Deidara said, looking almost reluctant to help in the first place. Sakura looked at him suspiciously. He rolled his eyes. "Consider this a free idea, hmm."

"I was more curious about how you know about movies."

"You're not my first human Sakura, I've been on earth with contracts longer than you've been alive. " Deidara drolled. Sakura let out a nervous laugh.

"I feel like I'm going crazy." She sighed to herself, kneeling down to arrange her pillows in a fashion she liked more than what he threw them in. "Do you mind staying in the other room?" She asked, not looking at him. He stared at her as she began to smooth out the bumps on the blanket. "I don't want to explain to my friend that I accidentally summoned some demon from the beyond into my house tonight." She was looking at him now with such earnestness that it almost made him want to break the connection.

"I guess." He conceded. "But after your friend leaves, we discuss the terms of your wish that you _will_ be making." He eyed her and she nodded slowly.

"Alright."

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_A/N: This took me FOREVER to get out. I had such a drive at the birth of this idea for a fic and it all but fizzled out after I wrote the first chapter. I had to dig deep, deep, deeeeeeeep, into the creativity well to scrape this up and even still I'm not all too proud about how it turned out. Regardless, it continues to move along the plot and now we get interaction between the two main people. Even if it's only a little. Ino originally was not supposed to come over. I had Sakura cancel their date due to having more pressing issues but I couldn't find another good way to end the chapter. And who knows what Deidara will get into now he'll have some alone time, hmm? I have no outline besides some major plot points I wanna hit so I'm mostly making this up as I go. I'm on this ride with you as I write it lol._

_Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. See you next chapter._


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